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I would venture to guess that just about everyone in the business of writing and publishing information about government and public policy has at least come close to making this mistake: The program for the graduation ceremonies this weekend at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin was printed and distributed with one rather important letter missing from the word "public."

It's just one of those cases where a spellcheck program isn't enough. The school is reprinting the program and sending the corrected version to all graduates. The embarrassed contrition shown by administrators is somewhat ironic, given LBJ's penchant for salty language.

Tom Shoop is vice president and editor in chief at Government Executive Media Group, where he oversees both print and online editorial operations. He started as associate editor of Government Executive magazine in 1989; launched the company’s flagship website, GovExec.com, in 1996; and was named editor in chief in 2007.

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